Inter Milan President On Disappointing Performances At EURO 2024: ‘More Pressure In Italy, Packed Fixture List’ | OneFootball

Inter Milan President Beppe Marotta feels that pressure and a packed fixture list were factors in Italy disappointment at EURO 2024.

The Nerazzurri executive spoke to Italian broadcaster RAI Sport, via FCInterNews. He gave his thoughts on the subpar performances from some Inter players in the Azzurri squad.

The atmosphere surrounding the Italian national team is, putting it mildly, not positive at the moment.

The Azzurri have just bombed out of the Euros, in a 2-0 defeat against Switzerland. If anything Italy were flattered by that scoreline.

Italy came into the Euros as reigning champions.

And the Azzurri did at least manage to avoid the humiliation of bombing out of the group stage.

However, doing so required a dramatic late equalizer in their final group stage match against Croatia, following three fairly unconvincing performances.

And it only delayed the disaster, as Italy exited the tournament against Switzerland over the weekend.

Marotta On Italy Disappointment At EURO 2024: “More Pressure, Packed Fixture List”

There were several Inter players who played important roles for Italy at the Euros.

All of Nicolo Barella, Davide Frattesi, Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco, and Matteo Darmian started matches for the Azzurri.

And it would not be fair to say that none of them performed positively.

Barella had a standout match against Albania in Italy’s group stage opener. However, he looked tired by the time that the Azzurri went out to Switzerland.

And Bastoni had a standout group stage. He was Italy’s leader at the back, and put in three impressive performances defensively.

However, Bastoni was unable to keep the Italy backline together by the time of the match against Switzerland.

Inter CEO Marotta said that “It’s normal that in Italy, there’s more pressure than other national teams.”

He added that “The fixture list is more congested than ever.”

“There’s competitive, psychological, and physical stress,” Marotta furthermore  noted.

“Players don’t always come to this moment in the season in the best condition. And that also affects general performance.”